Russia's horror 'call to Putin' torture method explained - and it will make you wince

Russian soldiers are torturing Ukrainians with electric shocks to their genitals in a sick method known as making a "call to Putin," according to a United Nations report. Captured Ukrainian service personnel and civilians are having their ears, fingers, feet and genitals attached to a Soviet-era telephone before sadistic guards subject them to an 80-volt electric shock.

The report, which is due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council next month lays bare the cruelness and war crimes at the heart of Vladimir Putin's armed forces. Dr. Alice Jill Edwards, the UN's torture expert who wrote the report, told the Telegraph that "the scale is really off the charts about how many people who are detained are subjected to some form of degrading or inhumane treatment. It's not only on an individual level; this is widespread and systematic, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The torture method, which sometimes also goes by the name of "call to Lenin" is just one of a range of cruel forms of abuse being inflicted on people in captured cities and towns.

Other forms of torture believed to be widespread include gang rapes, beatings, burning nipples and threats of castration, according to Edwards.

Edwards added that Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for the actions of his soldiers, claiming that torture is "part of Russian war tactics and policy."

She added: "At no time have I seen directives from the hierarchy for Russian soldiers and others to stop torturing. That's what I've asked for. Those directives do not exist.

"It is the level of the state; it's Putin himself and Lavrov who have responsibility for these types of policies.

"The Russian state itself will be held accountable. Torture remains part of, in my view, Russian war tactics and war policy."

Ms Edwards's report is based on a dossier of 10 selected cases of degrading treatment and sexual torture against civilians in Russian controlled territory.

The victims, six of whom were male and four female, came from three Ukrainian regions, some of which were subsequently liberated by Ukrainian forces.

One victim, a 50 year old man from Kherson, told how over three interrogations, he was kicked in the kidneys, lost teeth in a beating, was subjected to a mock execution and sodomised with a rifle.

Others detail being sexually assaulted and having children threatened with rape.

Edwards believes that the torture is sometimes done for a specific purpose, with videos and false confessions later used for blackmail or to ensure loyalty.

She said: "They are used as a form of blackmail to keep them loyal to the Russian authorities in those areas, or to instil fear in the population to make them worried about speaking out or trying to leave the areas or not do what they're told by the occupying forces."